a beautiful mind movie essay

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The Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr. still teaches at Princeton, and walks to campus every day. That these commonplace statements nearly brought tears to my eyes suggests the power of "A Beautiful Mind," the story of a man who is one of the greatest mathematicians, and a victim of schizophrenia. Nash's discoveries in game theory have an impact on our lives every day. He also believed for a time that Russians were sending him coded messages on the front page of the New York Times.

"A Beautiful Mind" stars Russell Crowe as Nash, and Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Alicia, who is pregnant with their child when the first symptoms of his disease become apparent. It tells the story of a man whose mind was of enormous service to humanity while at the same time betrayed him with frightening delusions. Crowe brings the character to life by sidestepping sensationalism and building with small behavioral details. He shows a man who descends into madness and then, unexpectedly, regains the ability to function in the academic world. Nash has been compared to Newton, Mendel and Darwin, but was also for many years just a man muttering to himself in the corner.

Director Ron Howard is able to suggest a core of goodness in Nash that inspired his wife and others to stand by him, to keep hope and, in her words in his darkest hour, "to believe that something extraordinary is possible." The movie's Nash begins as a quiet but cocky young man with a West Virginia accent, who gradually turns into a tortured, secretive paranoid who believes he is a spy being trailed by government agents. Crowe, who has an uncanny ability to modify his look to fit a role, always seems convincing as a man who ages 47 years during the film.

The early Nash, seen at Princeton in the late 1940s, calmly tells a scholarship winner "there is not a single seminal idea on either of your papers." When he loses at a game of Go, he explains: "I had the first move. My play was perfect. The game is flawed." He is aware of his impact on others ("I don't much like people and they don't much like me") and recalls that his first-grade teacher said he was "born with two helpings of brain and a half-helping of heart." It is Alicia who helps him find the heart. She is a graduate student when they meet, is attracted to his genius, is touched by his loneliness, is able to accept his idea of courtship when he informs her, "Ritual requires we proceed with a number of platonic activities before we have sex." To the degree that he can be touched, she touches him, although often he seems trapped inside himself; Sylvia Nasar , who wrote the 1998 biography that informs Akiva Goldsman's screenplay, begins her book by quoting Wordsworth about "a man forever voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone." Nash's schizophrenia takes a literal, visual form. He believes he is being pursued by a federal agent ( Ed Harris ), and imagines himself in chase scenes that seem inspired by 1940s crime movies. He begins to find patterns where no patterns exist. One night he and Alicia stand under the sky and he asks her to name any object, and then connects stars to draw it. Romantic, but it's not so romantic when she discovers his office thickly papered with countless bits torn from newspapers and magazines and connected by frantic lines into imaginary patterns.

The movie traces his treatment by an understanding psychiatrist ( Christopher Plummer ), and his agonizing courses of insulin shock therapy. Medication helps him improve somewhat--but only, of course, when he takes the medication. Eventually newer drugs are more effective, and he begins a tentative re-entry into the academic world at Princeton.

The movie fascinated me about the life of this man, and I sought more information, finding that for many years he was a recluse, wandering the campus, talking to no one, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, paging through piles of newspapers and magazines. And then one day he paid a quite ordinary compliment to a colleague about his daughter, and it was noticed that Nash seemed better.

There is a remarkable scene in the movie when a representative for the Nobel committee ( Austin Pendleton ) comes visiting, and hints that he is being "considered" for the prize. Nash observes that people are usually informed they have won, not that they are being considered: "You came here to find out if I am crazy and would screw everything up if I won." He did win, and did not screw everything up.

The movies have a way of pushing mental illness into corners. It is grotesque, sensational, cute, funny, willful, tragic or perverse. Here it is simply a disease, which renders life almost but not quite impossible for Nash and his wife, before he becomes one of the lucky ones to pull out of the downward spiral.

When he won the Nobel, Nash was asked to write about his life, and he was honest enough to say his recovery is "not entirely a matter of joy." He observes: "Without his 'madness,' Zarathustra would necessarily have been only another of the millions or billions of human individuals who have lived and then been forgotten." Without his madness, would Nash have also lived and then been forgotten? Did his ability to penetrate the most difficult reaches of mathematical thought somehow come with a price attached? The movie does not know and cannot say.

(Note: For Nash's autobiographical statement, go to www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1994/nash-autobio.html)

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Rated PG-13 For Intense Thematic Material, Sexual Content and A Scene Of Violence

129 minutes

Judd Hirsch as Helinger

Paul Bettany as Charles

Russell Crowe as John Nash

Jennifer Connelly as Alicia

Ed Harris as Parcher

Christopher Plummer as Dr. Rosen

Based On The Book by

• Sylvia Nasar

Directed by

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“A Beautiful Mind” Psychology Analysis, Movie Review Example

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“A Beautiful Mind”, starring Russell Crowe is a psychological drama that details the real-life experiences of brilliant mathematician John Forbes Nash. A prodigy student at Princeton University, Nash was able to do Nobel Prize Winning work as a student. In addition, John Nash is a paranoid schizophrenic.

The movie outlines his brilliance as a mathematician, which led him to teaching. The movie outlines his romantic relationship with his student, the future Alicia Nash. At the same time, John Nash became involved in what seems like a secret government code-breaking operation.

John Nash eventually cracks. The government work he believed he was doing was a product of his schizophrenia, and Nash was institutionalized. Eventually he was released after discovering that his college roommate, and best friend, Charles, was also a product of his delusions. When released, he was heavily medicated.

Eventually recognized and given his deserved Nobel Prize, the main point of the movie is how Nash was able to use his incredible mind to regain control of his normally debilitating mental disorder. This is certainly illustrated at the end of the film, when Nash asks “Charles” why the niece he frequently has with him never aged.

Keeping in mind this is a true story, this is clear proof that John Nash was able to overcome his diagnosis of schizophrenia, which is absolutely correct, and very apparent throughout John Nash’s experiences throughout the film.

John Nash perfectly fits the DSM criteria for a paranoid schizophrenic. With specific reference to Criterion A symptoms, in which only one is necessary, Nash exhibits three very clearly. He clearly has delusions, one symptom, as well as hallucinations and disorganized speech, two other symptoms (DNA Learning Center, 2013).

Looking now at Criterion B for schizophrenia, John Nash certainly exhibits this behavior as well. It cites that the disturbances in behavior interfere with interpersonal relationships such as work, romantic, or self-care. This is very apparent in John Nash’s behavior throughout the film (DNA Learning Center, 2013).

The DSM criteria for schizophrenia in section C, deals with the duration of the symptoms. They determine that a patient must experience the above symptoms for at least six months. John Nash’s hallucinations clearly lasted for years in his experiences with Charles, so naturally he fits perfectly (DNA Learning Center, 2013).

Being that the film was a realistic portrayal of John Nash, the movie very accurately portrayed schizophrenia as a whole. More specifically, Nash was portrayed as a classic paranoid schizophrenic, and Russell Crowe played this role perfectly.

John Nash received a number of different treatments throughout the movie. After receiving regular ECT treatments after his initial psychotic break, he was prescribed medication that left him heavily sedated. The medication itself is never listed, but judging by the effects portrayed and the time period, it was most likely Lithium, the first and still used treatment for schizophrenia,

As is very typical with schizophrenics, once Nash had a grasp on reality he began to stop taking his medication. This, in turn, caused yet another psychotic break, causing more ECT treatments, and more medication.

The amount of ECT used on John Nash was considered standard treatment for most Bipolar and Schizophrenic patients of the time, especially those with paranoid delusions. Though these treatments are still used today, the ethics behind them have frequently been questioned, as has their effectiveness as a management tool, rather than an actual treatment. It is only John Nash’s incredible mind that allowed him to remain as intelligent as he was after the treatments–most at the time were left as zombies, unable to have any cognitive brain function at all.

The heavy doses of psychiatric medication prescribed to John Nash was also very typical of the time period. Again, the medication was never mentioned by name, but was probably a combination of Lithium and any number of medications known as “typical antipsychotics”, such as Haldol. His sedation was very apparent when he was on these medications, and this is a very accurate depiction of the side effects of both the medications and the ECT treatment itself.

The impact John Nash’s psychiatric disorder had on his family members, and even his peers, was very apparent throughout the depiction of Nash’s psychiatric break, and subsequent “rise from the ashes”. The social consequences spanned from his work to his home life.

There was a scene in the film where John Nash was supposed to be watching his child in the bathtub. This was after he went off of his psychiatric medication. He experienced a delusion of his seemingly government handler, and became distracted. His wife came just in time to rescue the baby from drowning. This directly led to one of his sessions in a mental institution. Not only did this almost result in the death of his child, it almost completely destroyed his marriage as well.

John Nash also had a psychotic breakdown while on the campus of Princeton University, after he requested use of their library. He was granted permission, and at first was treated with apprehension, before gradually assimilating, and tutoring graduate students for free. Unfortunately, one day Charles decided to show up while he was on the campus, after he spent so much time rebuilding his reputation–and John Nash was again discredited.

Eventually, John Nash had a conversation with Charles in the movie. It was depicted that he simply used his logic to determine that Charles’ niece had never aged in the amount of time he had known her. This led him to telling Charles he knew for sure that he was not real, and that he would no longer be acknowledging either of them as real people.

Overall, “A Beautiful Mind” shows a very heartwarming and accurate story of the life of John Nash, and the adversity he had to face his entire life dealing with schizophrenia. Throughout all of his ECT treatments, medications, and doctors, John Nash was able to beat his disease using his aptly termed “beautiful mind”, calling modern psychiatric into question. Do all patients need the same treatment, or should patients be treated more individually? John Nash’s mind was almost destroyed by something meant to preserve.

John Nash should make every psychiatrist reevaluate any patient recommended for ECT treatments–and all of the pros and cons closely scrutinized–before risking a treatment that is truly irreversible.

Butcher, James. “Abnormal Psychology”. 14th ed. 2012.

“DSM-IV Criteria for Schizophrenia :: DNA Learning Center.” DNALC Blogs . N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2013. <http://www.dnalc.org/view/899-DSM-IV-Criteria-for-Schizophrenia.html>.

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Essay on “A Beautiful Mind” Movie

The 2001 motion picture A Beautiful Mind stars Russell Crowe as the Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash, a complicated character who along with his brilliance, was also plagued by a life long struggle with schizophrenia. The film’s narrative plots a path for the audience from times before Nash was aware of his illness through to the point at which he and his wife find a way to manage the condition. In this short essay I intend to explore and examine the ways in which the theme of schizophrenia is treated within A Beautiful Mind, from the symptoms, to the treatment and the minutia of how the illness impacts on the individual and the individual’s family.

The first signs within the narrative that the audience can see John’s illness manifesting is in his increasing inability to communicate his feelings, which takes a toll on his personal relationships and the intimacy that he once enjoyed. The role that his wife takes on during the film can almost be seen as an audience surrogate, with Alicia seeking to help from the outside by seeking treatment and the need for medical definitions of her husband’s problems. From John himself, however, we get to experience a more internal side of the illness, with depictions of hallucinations and delusions along with outward symptoms like awkward facial expressions and slurred, jumbled passages of speech. In showing both the internal and external sides of schizophrenia through the experiences of both Alicia and John, the film brings a pleasing sense of balance to the topic of mental health.

Something else that the film does very effectively is show that schizophrenia, and more broadly any mental illness, is never a single cure type of problem. Though John shows some change in function and a degree of control after initial treatment, the narrative makes it clear to the audience that the battle is far from won, and this is demonstrated by the fact that the character continues to experience hallucinations and follow them as if they were real life: for example, his belief that he was a government employee helping to decode newspaper secrets.

Interestingly, something that is particularly significant about the treatment of mental illness within the film is that John, by the end of the narrative, instead of experiencing a triumphant victory over schizophrenia, has learned to cope with his afflictions in a way that allows him to function as best he can. In choosing not to interact with his hallucinations, John is taking control of his illness whilst at the same time understanding that he can never truly rid himself of the schizophrenia. In treating it like a part of yourself that needs as much care and attention as any other, a balance can be found where you neither let it rule your life nor completely succumb to its heavy power. This suggests a wider point that it is possible for anybody, not just John Nash, to be able to take control of their mental illness and live alongside it without allowing it to completely dominate the essence of their lives.

In conclusion, it would be fair to surmise that A Beautiful Mind is an extremely effective cinematic tool that can be used to demonstrate both the effects and concepts that are related to schizophrenia. The picture manages to capture and portray the essence and impact of an illness that by its very nature is almost intangible, and for that it should be applauded. It can be seen as a great resource for opening up a discussion about schizophrenia and mental illness in general.

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Home Essay Samples Entertainment A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind: Film Review and Analysis

Table of contents, a beautiful movie.

• Grazer, B. (Producer), & Howard, R. (Director). (2001). A Beautiful Mind [Motion Picture]. United States: Imagine Entertainment.
• Nasar, S. (2011). A Beautiful Mind. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
• Rockwell, C. (2002). A Beautiful Mind (Film). Cineaste, 27(3), 36. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=7035635&site=ehost-live
• Thacker, M. & Hughes, C. (2013). Movie Review: A Beautiful Mind. Mental Health Clinician. 2(8), 246-247 https://doi.org/10.9740/mhc.n132978

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A Beautiful Mind Summary

Lights, camera, action.

Welcome to the most exciting movie you'll ever see about…math geeks.

Yes, that's right, the movie starts off by introducing us to John Nash, who's some kind of math whiz. He's just arrived at Princeton to start graduate school with a bunch of other math geniuses. It's kind of a math genius zoo, actually. With tweed coats.

Unfortunately, John doesn't fit in immediately with his fellow zoo animals. First of all, he doesn't go to class that often, which right off the bat isolates him from everyone. Why is he at graduate school if he's not interested in going to class, you ask? Well, he thinks it's more important to be sitting at his desk, searching for a rockstar thesis idea.

So, he pretty much sticks to his room and himself, which automatically limits his friend pool. Then, there are John's social skills. John is confident and smart, a combo that sometimes comes off as arrogant, and really awkward in social situations, which makes him less than warm and fuzzy with others. And John's attempts to talk to girls? Pretty disastrous in general, from what we can tell.

But not to worry: John has a super cool English roommate named Charles who seems to give him all the companionship he needs, at least at first. So, John doesn't seem super lonely.

Unfortunately, John's department is unimpressed with his class-avoiding ways, particularly when he can't come up with a decent idea for a paper. At one point, it looks like John might not end up living up to all those great expectations that everyone had for him.

And then, just like that, John ends up coming up with a huge idea that ends up revamping economic theory. It's exactly the kind of big splash he was looking to make, and it guarantees him a supernova bright future in academia.

Or rather, it seems guaranteed.

Things take a weird turn when John gets placed in the prestigious Wheeler Lab at MIT after leaving grad school. Some guy from the Department of Defense gets him involved in breaking codes for the U.S. government to help them beat out the Russians in the Cold War, and we suddenly see our favorite math geek making file drops (using a secret passcode that has been implanted in his wrist ) and getting in the middle of shootouts between the DoD dude (whose name is Parcher) and Russian spies. Not exactly your typical day at the office for a mathematician.

Oh, we should probably pause here to mention that while all this has been going on, John has managed to hook up with a woman named Alicia who, unlike the other women we've seen John with in this film, "gets" and totally digs him. In fact, things go so well that they end up getting married.

It's all very sweet and awww-inspiring, but when John starts getting followed by spies and mixed up in shootouts, he's pretty worried that he's putting his new bride (and their baby-on-the-way) in danger. So, he tries to bow out of his code-breaking duties.

However, Parcher keeps following him and demanding that he continue working for the U.S. government, or else he'll out John as a code breaker to the Russians. So, as you might imagine, John is pretty freaked out.

Things come to a head when John is doing a presentation at a mathematics conference at Harvard, sees suspicious men enter the auditorium, and freaks out . The men chase and subdue John with drugs that knock him out, and we're super worried about what these dudes have planned.

When John comes to, though, we realize that everything we thought we knew was 100% wrong. Did you find it weird that a mathematician would be mixed up in all this international intrigue? Well, us too, but we had no idea what was really behind it all: John is schizophrenic, and all of that action was part of hallucinations. Not real. Didn't happen.

Oh, and just to add some heartbreak into the mix, John's super close friend and former roommate, Charles, was also imaginary. That's really a kick in the teeth, because Charles is super-awesome.

So, John has a rough road from this point on. First, he has to come to grips with the fact that he's sick, and the things he thought were real…aren't. Then, he has to figure out a fix. The doctors do electro-shock therapy and put him on meds, but that pretty much makes John unable to work, which means he ends up super depressed and feeling useless.

So, he goes off his meds and ends up having the delusions again, which leads to a pretty dramatic incident in which Alicia almost commits him against his will. However, he convinces her to try to let him get better at home without drugs (for now), so he can get back to trying to work. He gets an old colleague at Princeton to get him library privileges at his old uni, and he starts working on his ideas again.

Yes, the delusions are still there, but John figures out how to ignore them and keep them at bay…and slowly, miraculously, he seems to learn how to function and live with his illness.

He even ends up with a happy ending: he wins the Nobel Prize for that theory he developed as a graduate student, and he has all the kudos, acclaim, and admiration of his math genius peers. Not the ending we would have predicted when we first met John, but we're super glad he gets it.

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Home / Essay Samples / Entertainment / A Beautiful Mind / A Beautiful Mind: Movie Critique

A Beautiful Mind: Movie Critique

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